Sabres Fall to Caps: Experiencing Growing Pains

If you're a Sabres fan, the good news is the Sabres didn't blow a lead in the third period. The bad news is that the Sabres didn't show up for the first two periods and lost to the Washington Capitals 4-2.

In losing, all of the Sabres flaws were exhibited. Offensive zone penalties, poor goaltending, no clutch scoring.  It was not a pretty sight.

From the opening face-off, the Sabres pressured Washington. Derek Roy was flying around the Caps zone forechecking. But he pressed a little too hard and tripped the Cap d-man, giving the Capitals a power play just 46 seconds in.

The Caps played tic-tac-toe with the puck on the power play.  Once or twice the Sabres gained possession, but their weak clearing attempts only served to pass the puck out to the Caps pointmen.

After a minute, Ovechkin took charge and initiated a four pass sequence that ended up with Miller coughing up a rebound off a close-in shot and Brooks Laich tapping it in for the first goal.

The Caps carried the play to the Sabres as the period continued.  Sekera made a foray into the offensive zone which, as is often the case with Sekera, resulted in a Caps two-on-one rush the other way.  Sekera did back-check into the play and the rush didn't appear that threatening, forcing the Caps player to take a slap shot from just inside the blue line.  

But Miller kicked the rebound 20 feet out directly in front of the net and Chris Bourque, (Ray's son) was able to fire it past a sprawled Miller for his first NHL goal.  It is unbelievable how many players break long scoring droughts or score their first goals against the Sabres.

The Sabres' offense had not done much to this point, but this was a goal Miller should not and could not give up as it seemed to take whatever life the Sabres might have had right out of them. Even with the Caps giving the Sabres a couple of penalties, the Sabres could not generate any pressure.  

Time and time again, The Sabres would misfire on a pass or mishandle the puck, losing possession.  The only Sabre seemingly interested in using his body was Paul Gausted, back in the line-up after missing several games due to injury.

The Sabres could not get anything going at all and when Sekera took a tripping penalty, it didn't take long for Washington to score another power play goal and up their lead to 3-0.

Finally the Sabres picked up the pace in the third period, forechecking with an energy they had not displayed earlier.  They had several moments of sustained pressure but it seems that the ghost of Alexei Zhitnik still haunts the Sabres as Spacek, Roy, and MacArthur all wasted good scoring chances by missing the net.

With just over twelve minutes left, Gaustad made a pretty pass, flipping the puck in the air over the Caps defenseman so that it landed flat on the streaking Adam Mair's stick. Mair made a sweet move to the backhand and roofed it over Theodore to give the Sabre's hope. 

But they couldn't break through for another and when Buffalo pulled Miller in the final minute with Washington a man down, the Caps' Boyd Gordon scored on a rink length shot.  The Sabres managed to put the puck past Theodore once more in the final seconds to close the margin to 4-2.

This game wasn't all that close. The Sabres can say they are playing better but the results don't show it.  

Vanek, who was single-handedly carrying the team has cooled off. Miller's play is average.  None of the reinforcements from Portland appear ready to make a difference with the possible exception of Chris Butler who is plus four and does not look out of place at all since coming up to the big team.

I'd love to say the Sabres are a young team, going through the difficult growing pains of learning how to play better.  But the fact is that the seasoned players, Pominville, Kotalik, Roy, Spacek and (dare we say Afinogenov) that aren't carrying the load.  

This team seems to have less cohesion in terms of knowing where each other is going to be and putting passes on each others sticks than when the season started.  The coach needs to teach, motivate, and execute strategy and in at least two of these areas the Sabres seem to be failing.